Sometimes, debates arise in the Metal scene, with some of them being filled with passion. One of the most boring of them: the value of Black Metal as a valid musical expression. Of course one can advocate the 'hate' side or the 'love' side, but one thing is usual: the inner opinion filling the arguments, what is empty of sense. You can't advocate anything based on your taste, but on conceptions that aren't linked to it. And maybe a neutral approach is what is needed to deal with "Worldtorn; Anemoia", of the Australian quartet CLARET ASH. This EP shows a classic approach into Black Metal, but not as simple and straight as used by early Second Wave acts, because it's full of rhythmic shifts and contrasts of ambiences (as some Gregorian-like chants and guttural grunts, along with clean guitar moments on "Cascadence of the Twilight"), even using something nasty and fierce elements of the genre. It's not a sin to say that the band bears a Progressive approach (what means that their musical work is into a Progressive Black Metal tendency).

The technical level is on a high level (again: pay attention to the sets of instrumental arrangements of the songs), the energy explodes through the speakers, and the quartet shows personality. The final result is really excellent. "Worldtorn; Anemoia" was mixed and mastered by Mike Trubetskov (except for the orchestral version of "Cascadence of the Twilight", the fifth song, which has the sound design done by James Edmeades and Jay Taylor, with the last one doing the mixing of it as well). The main goal was to do something that could bear the old features of Black Metal (to improve the morbid and darkened feeling of the past), but in a way that could be understood by anyone. And things worked in a great way.

This EP depicts as the quartet is in a different trend into classic Black Metal sonority: they have the same features and darkened feeling, but with personal improvements. "Cascadence of the Twilight" is fast and has all those elements that all fans of classic Black Metal love to hear, but tempered with progressive-like touches (as said above, contrasts of vocals' tunes and changes between tempos and ambiences) and very good work on the guitars. On "Invocation of the Dream Weavers", they prefer to use a more darkened and morbid appeal with keyboards parts, with slower rhythms that puts the work of bass guitar and drums in evidence (and some technical traits on both of them are clear), but some faster attacks appear as well.

"Ground Dweller (2023)" is a rerecorded version for the same song of their first album, here with some improvements. "The Wolves Have Fed Again (Acoustic Version)" is what its name says: an acoustic song based on vocals, acoustic guitars and some percussive parts (what brings to mind something inherited of ULVER during "Kveldssanger" days). The orchestral version for "Cascadence of the Twilight" is filled with pianos parts, again with percussive touches, violins and clean vocals, and is shorter than the previous version as well. All of these songs show a band that has a lot to say, so let's hope that "Worldtorn; Anemoia" is just a step forward of CLARET ASH, and that their future album can be a groundbreaking release.